New Delhi: A local court has given a 10-year jail term to a youth and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 after convicting him of raping a seven-year-old girl last year.
"Raping a child is a crime against humanity and child rape cases are the cases of perverse lust for sex where even innocent children are not spared in pursuit of sexual pleasure," said Additional Sessions Judge Nisha Saxena while awarding the sentence to 21-year-old Rajesh.
"Children are natural resources of India and they are the country`s future on whom rests the hope for tomorrow," the judge said.
"Child sexual abuse being one of the most serious and damaging criminal offences. I sentence the convict to rigorous imprisonment for a period of 10 years and a fine of Rs 5,000," the court said.
"In our country, a girl child is in a very vulnerable position and one of the modes of her exploitation is rape besides other modes of sexual abuse," the judge said.
The case dates back to May 03, 2010, when Rajesh, a resident of Awaragard in Usmanpur area of northeast Delhi, lured the girl, playing near her house, to a secluded place near a drain on the pretext of giving her sweets and raped her.
According to the prosecution, Rajesh was later nabbed and thrashed by a crowd which heard the girl`s cries. The matter was reported to the police, which arrested Rajesh.
During trial, Rajesh pleaded not guilty saying he had been implicated by the girl and her mother for extorting money from him.
The court, however, rejected his pleas saying a girl subjected to sexual assault cannot be treated as accomplice to the crime but is a victim of another person`s lust.
"I find no reason as to why a child of her (victim) age would get an innocent person named for an offence which was indisputably committed on her. The deposition of the girl and her mother is cogent, credible and has grain of truth. And same is not in any manner can be said to be influenced by tutoring," the judge said.
PTI
